Our reason for coming to the East Coast of Tasmania is to visit Wineglass Bay in Freycinet National Park. There are two options. The first is an hour and a half return walk from the car park to the lookout. The second adds another hour and a half to that, with a steep descent of 800 steps each way. Which do you think we picked?

It is thankfully a bright, but cool, day as we set off, Dylan in his rucksack, and Taya in the Baby Bjorn. Rich has drawn the short straw and gets by far the heaviest load. Dylan talks non- stop up to the lookout, asking questions about everything under the sun -" Why has that tree fallen over? Why is that a step?, Why didn't that lady wait for us?", Emma hears Rich explain to Dylan that he is still listening but can't answer him just at the moment as he is using his energy for climbing. The view from the lookout is spectacular. It's a perfect arc of pure white sand and stunning clear blue water

. The sun is not shining for our photos but its a good thing for the walking.

So now it's down, down, down. The top is pretty steep and the steps are just made out of rough rocks so we have to concentrate pretty hard. Emma's task is made more difficult by the fact that she can't see the floor in front of her, and that Taya's new game is kicking and pushing against the legs of the person carrying her. It soon levels out and becomes much easier. The descent takes us about 30 minutes through a lovely wooded area. We emerge at the bottom onto the beautiful beach. It has been voted one of the top ten beaches in the world, so it really is top notch. We are really lucky, as when we first arrive, we don't need to share it with another soul. Shoes straight off and onto the lovely sand. Emma and Dylan brave a paddle. It's actually not that cold; no cooler than the beaches on the Great Ocean Road. We remembered Dylan's swimming shorts this time, but just as Emma is removing his top, as he's getting a bit keen, we get hit by a big wave - both soaked!! Rich catches the action on camera, but somehow didn't manage to warn us!

We pick a nice stretch of sand to do, and photograph, a full set of family footprints. Dylan has a photo on his bedroom wall of the prints from the three of us so we are just updating the shot to include the littlest member of the family

. Pleased with our efforts we attempt to dry off as we have our picnic and watch as more people arrive at the beach. Dylan gets chilly so Emma lends him her jumper. It makes us realise how little he still is. We are glad we came early ish so we had it to ourselves for a bit. A couple of people marvel at how we got a baby down there. Funny, but not one person comments on getting a toddler down there, which was infinitely harder due to the weight.

Both dreading the climb, we head off, Taya is asleep in seconds. Dylan talks for the first half of the climb, with his current favourite topic of conversation - "when I am an adult". This time it's about what he is going to make from wood when he chops down some trees. Suddenly it all goes quiet and we glance back and he's out for the count. Nap time means nap time for these two! The climb passes quickly, and we reach the top in no time at all. Only another 45 minutes to the car!

Tired parents transfer the little ones into the car seats and fall into ours. Totally worth the effort, we loved it. When the little people wake up we are in a little town called Bicheno. We go to a cafe for a drink and piece of cake, then restock at the supermarket. Back at home Rich fires up the BBQ and cooks us a lovely meal of sausages, beef burgers and steak

. Taya sits 'eating' for over an hour really enjoying herself. The best appeared to be the sucked steak.

The boys went out this evening on an adventure in search of some little penguins called Fairy Penguins who return to their burrows at dusk time. It's low season so we are told to only expect about 10 penguins. We are in luck, we see about 35. Dylan is most excited about travelling on the penguin bus and is surprised to learn the other people are also accompanying them on the tour. We are escorted to our guide by torch light and the first penguins are sighted. They come out of the water near boulders on the beach where they group and have a chat. Then they waddle up the beach and climb up on to a track and appear just in front of us. The Fairy penguins are about 40cms tall and real little characters. On the return journey we do some more wildlife spotting. We find a kangaroo and a wombat in the road.

Story books before bed. Dylan is particularly enjoying one about Elephants in the snow, repeat, repeat, repeat and sleep.

Comments

Gwen via Liz's extracts!
on May 13, 2013 at 06:12PM

How exciting. Dylan will certainly be good at geography when he goes to school. They are all going to be super fit with all the walking they are doing. Dylan sounds like he is a real chatterbox and enjoys speaking with different people. It's great they are staying in all sorts of places and have to adjust to the situation